Indonesia’s meeting, incentives, conventions and exhibitions (MICE) industry is expected to grow stronger next year, with the country set to implement a national MICE grand strategy to better manage the sector.

In addition, Indonesia will see the completion of infrastructure projects such as the country’s largest convention center, Indonesia Expo in BSD City, Banten, just southwest of Jakarta, and the expansion project of the Bali Nusa Dua Convention Center (BNDCC) in 2013.

“We believe the country’s MICE sector will grow a lot next year because we are a rich country with healthy economic growth and we are going to have a MICE road map that will give us guidelines on how to better develop this sector from 2013 to 2019,” Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry MICE director Rizki Handayani told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the fifth Indonesia MICE Outlook.

“We have talked to MICE players in the country regarding the grand strategy and they fully support us. We expect to finish the draft in December this year before implementing it in 2013.”

The ministry has teamed up with Gaining Edge, world’s leading business event industry consultant, to create the seven year road map, she said.

“We have to admit that we have yet to develop exact data on this industry. Hopefully, by having this grand strategy, we will be able to measure how successful we are in the MICE industry and what we should do next in order to reach our goal,” she continued.

Apart from the creative economy, sports tourism and cruises, MICE has become one of the ministry’s priority sectors to be developed in the next five years.

The completion of Indonesia Expo and the BNDCC will result in around a 10 to 15 percent increase in international events in the country’s major city, Rizki went on.

According to the chairman of the Indonesia Trade Exhibition Promoters Association (Asperapi) Effi Setiabudi, and vice president director of the country’s leading MICE organizer Pacto Convex, I Ketut Salam, exhibitions and international meetings in the country were expected to enjoy double-digit growth.

Indonesia will host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting, Miss World 2013, the World Trade Organization meeting and the World Toilet Organization Conference, all scheduled for next year.

According to International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) Asia Pacific regional director Noor Ahmad Hamid who attended the fifth Indonesia MICE Outlook, there are 45 international meetings confirmed to be held in Indonesia up to 2015.

The figure will keep increasing as Indonesia continues to bid for more international events in the next two years, industry players have said.